'Scandal' season 6 news, spoilers: ABC releases new teaser featuring last moments before election results

Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is stressing over the presidential election results when "Scandal" season 6 returns this week.

ABC has just released a new promo clip for the political drama's season 6 premiere, and it shows Olivia carefully keeping track of the election polls. Titled "Survival of the Fittest," many fans are looking forward to the upcoming episode because it will finally resolve last season's major cliffhanger by revealing who won the U.S. presidential elections.

The teaser shows a reporter saying that the results are very close, and it's quite difficult to tell who would win. Olivia appears to be concerned because she obviously wants Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) to win, so she encourages everyone who hasn't cast their votes yet to do so before the time is up. Olivia and her team are well aware that it's a crucial time because California is the only state wherein votes are still not yet counted. Upon hearing that the results are so close, Mellie is seen exhaling deeply.

Since the first few episodes of season 6 were filmed ahead of the actual 2016 presidential election, the results on "Scandal" are not influenced by the real-world election outcome. However, fans have noticed that lead actress Washington may have given out some hints on who won between Mellie Grant and Francisco Vargas.

"We shot the episodes way before the real election... but it will be hard to believe that we didn't know about our election," she said during an interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" last Tuesday. Hillary Clinton lost the real life 2016 presidential election in November, leading fans to speculate that Mellie failed to win the election in the series.

Aside from the elections, season 6 will also feature many flashbacks. Viewers can expect a special milestone hour as well because the show will air its 100th episode this season.

The sixth season of "Scandal" returns on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.